Marketplace Is Rising From Plans

Nearly 500 Construction Workers Are Busy On The Mall, Which Has A Grand Opening Set For March 4.

October 21, 1997|By Will Wellons of The Sentinel Staff

OVIEDO — The wind whips through the new Regal Cinema. Rain is beating down the dust at the Food Court.

Construction crews appear to be facing daunting tasks as the Oviedo Marketplace moves toward its milestone of 100 days until the mall's grand opening in March.

Project manager Tom McCarthy just grins as he watches nearly 500 construction workers building the 820,000-square-foot shopping center north of Red Bug Lake Road. His crews will complete the mall, he said, in the time it usually takes to put up a new home.

''You see something new going up every day,'' McCarthy said. ''It is really exciting.''

Last Friday night, construction crews paved the bridge over the Central Florida GreeneWay in a single night. Each morning, another segment of the mall's main walkway is poured.

A walk around the mall site shows more than two dozen contractors doing everything from building cinema walls to painting around skylights to welding steel.

Motorists rubbernecking from Red Bug or the GreeneWay will see the nearly completed exteriors of Dillard and Gayfers department stores, as well as 66-foot-high terra-cotta boxlike structures that will house the 22-screen Regal Cinema with stadium seating.

The mall's outer shell is 65 percent completed, McCarthy said. Nearly all of the mall's exterior should be finished by Dec. 1.

Various stores will then start building the shops that will fill the mall's interior. McCarthy said some of the mall stores will need just 30 days to build and stock the store.

''We are right on schedule - as always,'' McCarthy said.

Optimism from managers aside, construction crews are stretching the day. Some crews start work in the wee hours of the morning, while steel crews are working six days a week to keep the project on its timetable.

Grand opening for the mall is March 4 at 10 a.m. But Dillard and Gayfers will likely open at least a week earlier to get the staff trained.

Mike Bryant, senior development director, is still hustling to complete leases. He said the small store spots are 70 percent full and he expects to have 80 percent of the mall leased at opening.

In addition to Gayfers and Dillard, the Marketplace will have power stores including F.Y.E. (For Your Entertainment), Bed Bath & Beyond, Foot Locker and a major bookstore that is expected to formally announce in the next few weeks.

The Marketplace also will feature three sit-down restaurants: Ciao Cucina, which will serve upscale Mediterranean cuisine, and Cha Cha Coconuts, a Tampa-based eatery. The third has not been leased.

Chamberlin's Natural Foods, a Central Florida natural grocery store and eatery, will also be opening a new store at the mall. Owner Dale Bennett is impressed that one day much of the Marketplace will be covered with vines and that the mall has a stream running through the main entryway.

''This is not a typical mall. That's what I like about it,'' Bennett said. ''We have been looking to get into the Oviedo area for some time. We were waiting for the right opportunity to come along.''

Meanwhile, mall developer Rouse Co. has been working to build community support by sending out a newsletter updating nearby homeowners on the mall's progress.

Oviedo Marketplace was once the source of much community upheaval and lawsuits as the project went through its approvals. Members of the Tuscawilla community to the north complained the mall would bring more traffic and crime to the area. Those complaints led to the construction of a $5 million bridge over the Central Florida GreeneWay instead of a mall entrance road onto Winter Springs Boulevard.

Now, new home builders in Tuscawilla are using the mall as a selling point.

Worries over the shopping complex have diminished now that the first phase is 33 percent smaller than the approved size of 1.2 million square feet. However, Bryant said he is still working to find other major department stores.

''Only time will tell how much effect the mall will have on traffic,'' said Tom O'Connell, a director with the Tuscawilla Homeowners Association. ''The less it looks like a mall and the more it looks like a neighborhood power center is fine with us.''